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Compare Forums - Part 3 - Fireboard

Part 1 - Forum Reviews start page - SMF review

Part 2 - phpBB review
Part 3 - FireBoard Forum for Joomla review [this page]

This is Page 3 of our forum software reviews. Here we look at the popular FireBoard forum on Joomla CMS. Make sure to check out the Start page in this section, and also our review criteria.

You should also note that the reviews are only accurate at the review date - software is constantly updated.

>> PLEASE NOTE THE STATEMENTS IN THE DISCLAIMER AT THE END <<

FireBoard Review

review date: 2008-03-20

The FireBoard forum is a Joomla CMS plugin, and therefore is not a standalone application. There are several benefits to this in many circumstances; the drawback of course is that you will need the CMS installed first.

Kunena

Note that the latest version or fork is the Kunena forum. Essentially this builds on the Fireboard foundation so the majority of this 2008 review is still applicable. Of course, Kunena is an improvement so some negatives of Fireboard no longer apply. When we have time we will update this review. In the meantime pleae visit the new Kunena website for any Fireboard / Kunena related matters. We recommend the new Kunena forum instead of using the Fireboard series, as there have been significant upgrades:
Kunena forum website

Installation
Installing this free software is quick, easy and straightforward as it simply plugs into the Joomla CMS. That has one of the best extension systems around, so this procedure is normally quick and painless.

It is a capable forum and because it can only exist as part of Joomla, it can take advantage of the huge benefits of this arrangement. Those include sophisticated templates and high-level SEO.

FireBoard integrates fully with Joomla. There is no need to set up any SQL parameters on install, because it is a seamless integration and therefore no database configs are necessary - all CMS plugins use the core database transparently.

Documentation
There are no docs, as far as we are aware (that we have ever been able to find) - so the situation is not good. However, this forum is less complex than other solutions since the parent application has already had much of the setting up and other configs sorted out. It is probably safe to say that there is only one main issue you would need to research in the docs, in any case (more later). For English-speakers it does not help that this isn't the author's first language; though problems are few and far between.

Templates
Being part of Joomla, FireBoard has access to what is probably the best templating system around. Standard Joomla templates may suit, and in any case the forum will most likely run fine on whatever template is being used in the rest of the site. There are some cases where this wouldn't work - maybe for templates with unusual layouts and so on - but in this case a 'normal' one could be used in this section. In Joomla, you can have a different template for every page if you want. That would be going a little too far - but different templates per section is just fine. And it's about two clicks to arrange it. The entire page layout and appearance is therefore infinitely customisable - and much more easily than with any other forum solution.

Alternatively, there are some excellent templates for SMF, where this has been bridged into Joomla, and one of these might well suit.

As standard, the default template / CSS for FireBoard is designed to work in a compact environment, perhaps with left-column or right-column modules also on the page (or even both). Therefore, the fonts specified are very small (8-point in places although they seem even smaller). It will be best to use a wide-format template and ensure the font sizes are increased to normal in the CSS. Forums are best displayed as wide-format assets, not in compact 3-column set-ups - and perhaps not even with 2-column page layouts unless the page template is full width.

Plugins
As FireBoard is itself a plugin, there can't be any plugins for it - surely? Well, you're wrong, there's at least one. In the SEF URL and Metadata solution, sh404SEF, there is an integrated plugin for FireBoard which allows some fine-tuning of the SEO for this specific component: metadata settings and so forth, which leads us nicely into...

SEO
FireBoard SEO is light years ahead of any other forum due to the Joomla integration. And thanks to the sh404SEF solution, there are even several additional parameters that can be tweaked - as well as the basic SEO settings that the core CMS and then the SEF URL & Meta plugin provide. Very nice indeed.

Fireboard / Kunena SEO is probably better than even vBulletin with the vbSEO plugin installed. That's because the whole foundation is so much better in the first place. All standalone forums have terrible code from the SEO point of view, and vbSEO can't fix that. It fixes about 100 other issues but the source code is still sub-optimal. In contrast Joomla source code is potentially near-perfect (depending on the template of course), and when the Joomla 2.0 tableless version comes out it will be almost unbeatable. Maybe Plone or a special Radiant implementation will beat it but that's precisely two out of 3,000-odd CMS - and costs are in a different league for those two anyway.

For full metadata benefit you would have to fill the meta by hand on every page - but of course this is a universal problem with meta in any case. To get the ultimate benefit, you have to do each page manually. Here, we would at least do the main frontend pages, and the board main pages. The rest could perhaps wait. But at least unique meta is available if you want it, for every single page. In 2008 only vB could equal that, at some cost. It's still the case that this is an unusual facility even though it is a commercial necessity.

URLs: As you may imagine, you can have a choice of SEF URL types - whatever takes your fancy. We would choose sh404SEF to do the job, as it has component-specific configs.

Metadata: and ditto with the meta, it's covered. Only one thing to be said on the SEO front, really: superb SEO, the best of any forum.

Other problems
Not a lot. No forum - or any other kind of software - is perfect, so there are bound to be things you don't like. However, with FireBoard, these don't amount to much. Our only gripe is the weird initial board set-up procedure - discussed later.

Good points
This forum has several very sensible config adjustments which are exactly what people need in the real world - and some of these are missing from the big name forum apps. We like it a lot. Don't want certain things on view? No problem, you can hide them with one click. And so on.

Security
It's a plugin, so this depends a lot on the parent application. Here, the parent app is famously robust so it scores well. In addition, if you use the sh404 SEF URL solution, this adds another security layer on top.

Note that the new Joomla series has had a lot of problems with exploits although that is of course the norm with any new webapp. It just means that if you are running Joomla 1.5 series you must subscribe to the security bulletins and patch it immediately every upgrade comes out. Any statement that Joomla is insecure or easily hacked applies only to the new 1.5 series, and only to unpatched installs. This is entirely down to the webmaster. Every complex site needs a webmaster, it's not like the old HTML web page system.

However, there may be a question mark over running an integrated forum in an attack-prone environment. If the forum is fully integrated with a CMS, then if it were to be compromised, the main application can also be vulnerable. The database, if common - as it will be - can then be suspect. A forum will always be more vulnerable than a website application such as a CMS, as the forum allows people to register and become members (and thus receive some site privileges); and it allows users to input code of various sorts onto a page. For optimum security in a difficult environment, discrete (separate) applications are best.

sh404 Flood Block
The sh404 SEF URL / meta / security plugin has many useful functions and is a worthwhile addition to Joomla sites. If you use the sh404SEF component, and you have security switched on, then you may need to adjust the security parameters for anti-flooding protection, as forum posts tend to bundle a lot of HTTP requests and the flood limit is reached easily. Or, set the parameters higher: the default is 10 + 10, so try doubling that to 20 + 20. A forum post can bundle more than 10 HTTP requests, so a post can result in the flood block operating.

Admin
As regards usability and efficiency: the admin backend is fine. It does the job with a lot less fuss and bother than any other forum software we know of. It is tempting to think that the forum may be restricted or limited in some way, at first, because the admin is fairly simple; but this doesn't seem to be the case. You can do most things possible with other forums, as Joomla handles a large part of it - and a whole lot better, it has to be said, in some areas. However Fireboard ACL is far less competent than other forums.

This is essentially a text-based admin panel, following the Joomla module format, so it is restricted in many ways. This simple form of layout is OK for modules, which are always far simpler than this; but a component-level plugin needs better controls. As a comparison, look at the sh404SEF control panel; this is another component, of similar complexity, but it uses a full add-on panel. It's true to say that FireBoard goes some of the way toward this, but the implementation is a bit clunky and a lot of the J module text-and-checkbox options still remain.

There is one major usability problem, near the end of setting up. After installation, there are no forums / boards in existence, so you must create one to start with. As you may know, this is a fairly standard thing with forums.

However, the procedure here is obtuse, complex and difficult to comprehend for the non-technical, or those who have never set up a forum before. It's hard enough for techies to work out what on earth needs to be done, the first time round.

All that needs to be done is to create a forum as a container, then a board within it that is actually the first working board. However, this isn't explained anywhere; there are no docs; and the hints given here are more or less gibberish in English (they need translating better). As an example, we tested this with non-technical staff and they gave up after nearly an hour trying to create a forum with no joy.

So in point of fact, phpBB3 isn't the only one with a big usability negative here. Fair enough, the usability issues in FireBoard are nothing like the scale of the problem with phpBB3 - luckily - but still, something needs to be done, just on this particular issue.

Anyhow, once you have that first forum running (or board, more correctly) then it's so, so easy with FireBoard. The pain fades away and you're coasting.

ACL
Simple and basic, but enough. Multiple boards can of course be created, and these can be split between public and registered members only. We have never been able to get the more complex aspects of the ACL to work, as this needs help files - and there aren't any. If you need private boards for admins then SMF would be a better choice. For even more than that, vBulletin would be worth a look.

The visitor experience
As good as any other forum; and probably better, in that a realistic selection of menus and other on-page assets like modules and so forth will be available due to the Joomla integration. This is an area where most forums fall down badly, but FireBoard has a big advantage built-in.

Sure, SMF and phpBB can be extended if you know how, or can pay - but here it's only a click or two away.

The CSS needs adapting to a larger page display format - but that's about all there is to moan about.

Negatives
We've seen all the plus factors - now what about the negatives?

Firstly: this won't be the best solution if you have a very busy Joomla site, since an integrated forum puts a heavy load on the core app / server. If there are more than say 20k uniques per day, you might be better off thinking about alternatives.

On the other hand, this could be one of the very few situations where a subdomain is a realistic solution. Here, with a totally separate Joomla instance running in a subdomain separately, with a clone of the main site template, then FireBoard will run discretely and put no strain on the main website apparatus. Linking can be done to integrate the two systems.

Since a subdomain and the main domain are effectively separate domains, with separate DNS and separate site software (and separate PageRank and everything else), the two entities are different and apart. This means that under normal circumstances a subdomain is a very poor choice from the SEO point of view, since good PR from the subdomain doesn't transfer to the main site. However, if the main site is heavily loaded, a subdomain forum can be a reasonable choice.

Secondly, as discussed, there may be some issues for those who run a forum in a vulnerable environment. A subdomain install, and using another database, would fix that though - but with those SEO negatives.

There is the usual forum post-installation problem of no working board in place. Here, it can be very tricky for those unfamiliar with the software to make any progress, the complete lack of even a basic help page adding to the issue. Loading the sample data here is a definite negative; as is often the case, there is tons of it and you may well never be able to get rid of all of it - so don't do it. All that's needed is one single working forum after the software is installed; such a simple requirement, but so hard for developers to comply with (it must be - all the users we have ever spoken to want this; but it's never provided).

Conclusion
A good simple forum solution if you run the Joomla CMS. In fact it's so good that it would even be worth entertaining the idea of installing a skeleton Joomla instance just to hold the FireBoard forum - it's that good. Especially when you consider the benefits you'd get with Joomla.

The best route by a mile if you have Joomla and don't mind a fully-integrated forum that uses your main site database and membership lists. This will work brilliantly up to maybe 10k visits per day or so - perhaps more, depending. In any case, 20 or 30k visits per day means you can easily afford load balancing - which might solve the problem.

For very busy sites, and also those with security issues, then this may not be the best solution. A busy forum puts a heavy load on a server, and integrating this into an already busy site may not be a great idea. Some sites will attract a lot of interest from attackers, and therefore it may be best if applications are totally discrete.

Forum Application: Tech Spec
cost: free
type: JoomlaCMS plugin
version reviewed: 1.0.4
zip installer size: 0.8MB
choice of templates: plentiful (though you may have to get into the CSS)
number of plugins (estimate): n/a
authors' site: www.bestofjoomla.com
example sites: start from the central site's forum members
new Kunena version (recommended): www.kunena.com

[tags: FireBoard forum review, Joomla forum comparison]

______________________________________________________________

Please note:

1. The reviews can only be accurate at the review date. Software is constantly being updated (or should be), so one month later some details may have changed.

2. These forum reviews are the personal opinion of the reviewer. They are an honest appraisal from that person's point of view - but you might disagree entirely. Different people have different expectations and viewpoints. Where we have criticised, you may disagree completely. Where we approve, you might not.

Our viewpoint is heavily based on commercial reality (ie SEO potential) and admin usability.

We only give a viewpoint, which may or may not be factually correct. There will inevitably be those who completely disagree with our interpretation - and you should consider this fact. Please be aware that there are substantial numbers of users of any given application for which we provide reviews, who would probably disagree with comments made in the reviews.

YOU MUST TRIAL THE SOFTWARE YOURSELF IN ORDER TO COME TO YOUR OWN CONCLUSION.

Compare Forums - Part 3 - Fireboard

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